Security Council: Disarmament Commission

The Sub-Committee (Canada, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States) of the Disarmament Commission held its 87th–157th meetings in London, March 18—September 6, 1957. On March 18, the Soviet representative presented a proposal for an international convention on the reduction of armaments and armed forces and the prohibition of atomic and hydrogen weapons, in accordance with a resolution passed by the General Assembly at its ninth session. He outlined two stages, one to be carried out in 1957–58 and one in 1959, and stated that it would be desirable to establish control posts at such places as large ports and railway junctions and to establish zones of limitation and inspection in Europe, including the territory of both parts of Germany and that of the states adjoining them. During the first stage, the five great powers were to reduce their armed forces to levels not higher than those suggested in the Anglo-French memorandum of March 29, 1955, and the Soviet proposals of May 10, 1955. During the second stage, inter alia, the production of atomic and hydrogen weapons was to becompletely discontinued and provision was to be made for the elimination of those weapons from armaments and the destruction of stockpiles of them.